People pass an Express Line 501 bus at the Metro Red Line North Hollywood Station before it departs to Pasadena on Thursday, April 14, 2016. The express line, a six month experiment which may be a precursor to a proposed $266-million dedicated busway, links the Orange Line to the Gold Line. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz/Pasadena Star-News)

At a press conference in Pasadena, Eric Garcetti, L.A. Mayor, Metro Board Member steps off the new “NoHo To Pasadena Express” bus that will connect Metro Red/Orange Lines with metro Gold Line using 134 Carpool lanes. (Photo by Walt Mancini/Pasadena Star-News.

LOS ANGELES >> A dedicated busway between Pasadena and North Hollywood was given the go-ahead Thursday by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The bus-only track would cost as much as $448 million and would establish the first transit line connecting the San Fernando Valley with the San Gabriel Valley along a corridor used by 700,000 drivers each day.

Metro will study two options, a rapid transit busway along major city streets in Pasadena, Burbank and Glendale, or a busway primarily fixed in the middle of the 134 and 5 freeways.

Both options would link Metro’s Gold Line Stations at Memorial Park and Del Mar in Pasadena with the Orange and Red Line subways converging at the North Hollywood Station. A separate stub would connect with the Hollywood/Burbank Airport.

The street alignment would stretch 18 miles along Colorado Boulevard, Green and Union streets in Pasadena; Colorado Boulevard in Eagle Rock; Glenoaks and Brand boulevards, Central Avenue in Glendale and Olive Avenue and Lankershim Boulevard in Burbank and North Hollywood. Alternate alignments include: Alameda Avenue, Magnolia and Chandler boulevards.

Any bus rapid-transit components on Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena must be removable to allow for the running of the annual Rose Parade, according to comments received by Metro.

The streets alignment is proposed with 80 percent of dedicated right-of-way, when a bus would not have to stop at traffic lights or for cross-car traffic. It would carry 18,000 riders by 2035 and cost between $274 million and $448 million. By running the dedicated bus route through the streets of three cities, it would serve more riders than the freeway route, which would serve 10,300 riders.

A streets option would connect with Old Pasadena, The Paseo, South Lake Avenue and Pasadena City College. It would connect with Warner Bros, Walt Disney, Burbank and Dreamworks studios in Burbank and Glendale, as well as the Americana at Brand shopping mall.

The Metro board voted 12-0 Thursday to accept the findings of a technical study of the bus rapid transit project and to begin examining the environmental impacts of the corridor and the two alignment options.

Directors addressed why Metro chose to pursue a dedicated busway similar to the Orange Line BRT operating in the San Fernando Valley, instead of installing fixed light-rail.

“A BRT (bus rapid transit) is the most efficient way to get passengers around and also the quickest way” of getting a transit line built, said Metro Director and Glendale City Councilman Ara Najarian.

Of the 700,000 trips between Pasadena and Burbank/Glendale/North Hollywood, 98 percent are single-occupancy cars, while only 2 percent are transit, according to Metro.

“The primary challenge is to attract more choice riders through a premium bus service that is more competitive with automobiles,” the report stated.

Steve Scauzillo covers environment and transportation for the Southern California News Group. He has won two journalist of the year awards from the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club and is a recipient of the Aldo Leopold Award for Distinguished Editorial Writing on environmental issues. Steve studied biology/chemistry when attending East Meadow High School and Nassau College in New York (he actually loved botany!) and then majored in social ecology at UCI until switching to journalism. He also earned a master's degree in media from Cal State Fullerton. He has been an adjunct professor since 2005. Steve likes to take the train, subway and bicycle – sometimes all three – to assignments and the newsroom. He is married to Karen E. Klein, a former journalist with Los Angeles Daily News, L.A. Times, Bloomberg and the San Fernando Valley Business Journal and now vice president of content management for a bank. They have two grown sons, Andy and Matthew. They live in Pasadena. Steve recently watched all of “Star Trek” the remastered original season one on Amazon, so he has an inner nerd.